Pro-Euro win in Greece set to bring cheer in markets

ATHENS: Antonis Samaras' New Democracy party won Greece's second round of elections on Sunday, initial official projections showed.

New Democracy won 29.5% of the vote and gained 128 seats in the 300-seat legislature, according to official projections from the Greek Interior Ministry. Anti-bailout party Syriza gained 27.1% and 72 seats, while socialist Pasok, with 12.3%, gained 33 seats.

On the basis of the initial figures, New Democracy and Pasok, which have both supported imposing austerity measures in return for bailout funds from the EU and IMF, would gain a majority of 161 in the 300-seat parliament if they choose to form a coalition, according to the poll broadcast on state-run television.

The radical leftist Syriza party declared it will not join a government that supports an EU-IMF bailout, which imposes austerity measures on Greeks.

"For markets, a majority for an ND-Pasok coalition would be a relief," Holger Schmieding, London-based chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said in a note. "It would reduce the risk of a Greek euro exit."

The euro strengthened against the dollar as the exit poll results streamed in.